Raquel Welch (1940-2023) at the studio
commissary while filming "One Million BC" (1967)
❖❖❖
THIS WEEK
LONDON CALLING
Part Two
By John A. Curtas NEW YORK CORNER
OSTERIA ACCADEMIA
By John Mariani
GOING AFTER HARRY LIME
CHAPTER EIGHT
By John Mariani
NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
THE WINES OF CONTE VISTARINO By John Mariani
❖❖❖
On this week's episode of my WVOX
Radio Show "Almost Golden," on Wed. February
22, at 11AM EST,I will be
interviewing Aaron Goldberg,
authority on ALL THINGS
DISNEY. Go to: WVOX.com.
The episode will also be archived at: almostgolden.
❖❖❖
LONDON
CALLING
PART TWO
By John A. Curtas
Man does not live by meat alone.
Even if English cuisine is challenged by
finding green things to eat, it more than
makes up for it with its seafood. The
British Isles take a backseat to no one in
the flavor of their native fishes, and, if
you happen to be there in oyster season, you
will find no shortage of bivalves, either, to keep you
enthralled. It
would have been easy enough to stop into a
fish 'n chips shop around London on my latest
visit, but we had bigger pisces to fry in our
quest for the best. So it was off to Ramsgate
(a couple of hours outside London, at the far
southeastern tip of England), to sample
this iconic staple of British vittles at theRoyal Harbour
Brasserie, a cozy local's
favorite, overlooking the Ramsgate harbor at
the end of a half-mile long causeway called
the East Pier. The Brasserie is known for the
setting—looking as if the dry-docked bridge of
a ship had been hoisted wholesale onto the
breakwater—the view, with windows on three
sides giving everyone the sense of floating in
the harbor, and the seafood, of which we
plowed through some first-class oysters and
the best fish 'n chips of our lives. If you're a student of fish 'n chips,
you know you look for the perfect thickness of
non-greasy, malty beer batter, fried to just
done, so the moist, firm fish is enveloped in
a steamy, soft, starchy blanket of just the
right crunch giving way to a fish (local
haddock) that's allowed to show itself to its
best effect. If done right, all you need to
complete the picture is a splash of malt
vinegar, a dribble of lemon juice, or dollop
of tartar sauce. After
eating England's national dish, it was back to
London, whereWilton’s
(left) took us from one end of the
seafood spectrum to the other. Wilton's is as
iconic as any eatery in the country, having
been serving seafood in one form or another
since 1742. The look and feel of the place may
reek of old-school Brit exclusivity, but the
welcome is warm and the service cheerful and
courteous. Located among the fashionable shops of
Jermyn Street, this is a serious restaurant
stocked with big fish in more ways than one.
What began as an oyster bar
is now the clubbiest of seafood parlors (in
looks and clientele), catering to a carriage
trade who know their swimmers like a ploughman
knows his meat pies. English food is best which is
interfered with the least, and Wilton's
practically invented the idea. This is food
“un-foamed and un-fused” (as Colman Andrews
once wrote), as true to its roots as Royals
behaving badly. The day we were there acoulibiac of salmon (right)
was being paraded around the dining room to
ohs and ahs aplenty. (Typical British reserve
seems to melt away when faced with a “salmon
Wellington" the size and weight of a fire log.
Dutifully wowed, we ordered a hefty slice,
which followed a dozen oysters, lightly smoked
salmon, Scottish langoustines, and, of
course,
a Dover sole, (left) barely floured and
on the bone. What passes for Dover sole in
America (often plaice, petrale or lemon sole)
lacks the sweet, firm meatiness of the genuine
article. This was the real deal: a thin
coating of starch, the flesh sautéed to a wisp
of crispness, then de-boned into four dense
fillets of uncommon richness—the pinnacle of
flatfish sapidity. Wash it down with some
Grand Cru Chablis, then finish with cheese,
Port and sticky toffee pudding, and you’ll
stroll back onto Jermyn Street feeling like a
satiated Beau Brummell.
Built in
the grand cafe style of various European
capitals, The
Wolseley is a modern restaurant
masquerading as an artifact
of days gone by. It is one of those
eye-popping restaurants that wows you even
before you take your first bite. Being so
capacious allows them to hold back a number of
tables for walk-ins, so even without a late
afternoon reservation, we were promptly seated
by the amiable staff and within minutes were
tucking into some superb oysters, while
surrounded by folks taking in high tea,
wolfing down finger sandwiches, crumpets, and
other ruin-your-appetite nibbles which make
sense (to an American) only if you plan on
skipping dinner. The
menu is huge, the crowds constant, and the
vibe something Oscar Wilde would recognize.
Food offerings toggle between daily specials
and recipes from all over the map. Our tiny
sample of those oysters and some spicy, smokedkedgeree(an Anglo-Indian
rice-fish fusion; left)was hardly enough to
take the measure of the place, but for a
couple of weary Yanks wandering through
Mayfair on a chilly afternoon, it hit the
spot.
Britannia may rule
the waves, but in London, its cuisine shares
equal billing with any number of countries.
You don’t have to search far for Spanish tapas
or Chinese dumplings, but Indian curry parlors
are as common as corner pubs. High-end Indian
on a level found nowhere outside of the
country itself is also in abundance. We
amended our quest for classic British cuisine
just long enough to slide into Bibi,
a mere sliver of a space, tucked into the side
of a tony address in Mayfair, featuring
impeccably sourced groceries (they list the
provenance of almost everything on the menu)
fashioned into some real stunners: buffalo
milk paneer, beef tartare, and a
wolf-in-sheep's-clothing green chilli halibut
that was as fiery as it was plain to look at. I make no pretense in knowing the finer
points of northern Indian cooking (so many
Indian menus in America are more predictable
than an Applebee’s), so whatever metaphors
were being mixed or traditions being upended
went straight over our heads.
But it doesn’t take an expert to appreciate
the "Wookey-Hole cheese papad"—a sharp,
cheese-flavored papadum dipped into cultured
cream, mango and mint, layered in a cup to
look like the Indian flag—or the raw Highland
beef pepper fry (a crunchy-spicy tartare) that
snapped our palates straight to attention. Every bite of every dish seemed to be a
hidden minefield of flavorsstudded
with glorious little surprises like the cheese
in those papadum, or seared free-range buffalo
milk paneer cheese overlain with chillies and
a fenugreek kebab masala, none of it familiar;
all of it a palate-popping reminder of why god
gave us taste buds. From thesigree(grill)
section, we tackled a small portion of
almost fork-tender aged Swaledale lamb and
finished with an exotic Indian tea, and
a creamy/puffy, panna cotta-like saffron
"egg.” How you react to BiBi's high
amplitude cooking probably depends on how
much you want to invest in deciphering the
complicated cooking coming from the open
kitchen. It is very much an of-the-moment
restaurant that is seeking to shift the
paradigm for how people think about Indian
food. But even if you don't like ruminating
over your masalas as much as chef Chet
Sharma, his innovations will blow you away
... in more ways than one. After
days of historical restaurant hopping, we
loved soaking up the sparkling inventiveness
of BiBi, even if we had traveled across the
pond to get away from twee ideas on tiny
plates. It may be time for Indian food to
get a worldwide upgrade, but England doesn’t
need it. A country this steeped in tradition
doesn't have to keep re-inventing itself or
jump to the next big thing to satisfy
diners’ short attention spans and lust for
Instagram clicks. Every place we visited was
sedate and welcoming. Best of all, none felt
like they were trying too hard. If you love
impeccable ingredients presented in their
purist form, dining around London will fit
you like a cashmere cardigan. It is the
perfect antidote for the modern American
restaurant more resembling a garish
Christmas sweater.
John
Curtas is a Las Vegas-based food and travel
writer
and author of EATING LAS
VEGAS:The 52 Essential Restaurants
A friend recently
commented that I seem to cover a largenumber
of Italian restaurants in New York, but after
checking my 2022 archives, I found the number
was only five, and one was a steakhouse. Yet
the fact remains, I probably could easily
increase that number by three or four times,
given the number of Italian restaurants—not
even counting pizzerias—within the city’s five
boroughs, with more opening every week, by far
more than any other kind of restaurant. That
said, I’m trying to keep up with an increasing
number of Italian restaurants and trattorias
that are going well beyond the usual menus,
with young chefs following the lead of the
highly successful, small trattoria Rezdôra. Osteria Accademia is even smaller,
located in a storefront on Manhattan’s Upper
West Side, and in its décor alone it is
unique: Three walls are lined floor-to-ceiling
with books, which lends an academic feeling,
even if most are not volumes you’re likely to
start reading at the table. Our section of the
room was full of German scholarly books with snappy
titles like Einige Anmerkungen
über das Insektensystem des Hr. Geoffroy
und die Schäfferschen Verbesserungen
desselben by naturalist Johann Christian Polycarp
Erxleben. And it’s a
very pleasant, warm and cozy square of a room,
and, since it hasn’t many tables and only 36
seats inside, not very loud. From outside on
Amsterdam Avenue the glow of golden lighting
inside makes it a very appealing, inviting spot. The goal of owners Huseyin Ozer(he
also has BodrumandLeyla)
and partner Murat Akinci “is to provide the
community with a cozy spot where it is easy to
lose track of time over fine food, good wine,
and intellectual conversation.”Thus,
no crashing music. The menu is a collaboration
between chef
Claudio Matt Kaba and consulting chef
Massimilliano Convertini(of
Cipriani, Barolo), with several regional dishes
not found elsewhere. There
are, of course, several staples of Italian food,
beginning with a very good fritto misto ($19)
of calamari, shredded zucchini, and shrimp, all
cooked perfectly and greaselessly. Eggplant
parmesan ($20) uses smoked scamorza mozzarella
to add flavor, and the most delightful appetizer
is the crocchette
ai fungi ($18), a crisp but pliable ball
of porcini mushrooms, black truffles,
asiago cheese and mozzarella to hold it together
and a basil aïoli. There is, by the way, a section of the
menu offering six egg dishes,
including a frittata with pork sausage,
caramelized fennel, onion and pecorino ($18). The pastas are rich and satisfying,
including a very welcome lasagna ($24), a very
traditional, nice and gooey rendition with a
good balance of cheese, béchamel sauce and
pasta.Pretty
green mafalde
noodles had the crunch of pistachios and a fresh
mint pesto ($23). Gnocchi ($23) with four
cheeses—Gorgonzola,
pecorino,
Parmigiano and asiago—took on added texture and
flavor from caramelized Walnutsand a
gloss of truffle oil on top. The only disappointment was
ravioli cacio
e pepe ($28), stuffed with
pecorino and Parmigiano with shaved winter
truffle, whose
black pepper was in short supply for a dish
that depends on its fiery flavor to succeed. Among
the secondi
are a grilled steelhead trout with baby
carrots and lovely green pea sauce ($29) and orata (sea
bream)
with herbed breadcrumbs, broccoli di
rabe and roasted potatoes ($31). But the
dish not to miss is the osso buco,
with impeccably cooked, richly flavorful risotto
alla milanese ($43). You will either share
it or bring some home, perhaps both. For dessert, by all means have the big,
rich cannoli ($12) or the amaretto chocolate
cake ($12). The wine list fits Accademia’s trattoria
status, small but fitting for this kind of food,
and with prices well below $100 a bottle. No
matter what Accademia’s décor, it is a small,
fine place for authentic Italian fare whose
shelves of books provide a cuddling but
sophisticated atmosphere unique in New York.
Open
for dinner nightly, for brunch Sat. & Sun.
❖❖❖
GOING AFTER
HARRY LIME
By John
Mariani
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Our
worst enemies here are not the ignorant and the
simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the
intelligent and corrupt.”—Graham Greene, The Human
Factor (1978).
Not since her first meeting on the
project with Dobell had Katie given much thought
to notorious British double agent Kim Philby (left)
being the inspiration for Harry Lime. Nothing
she’d read about Greene gave any hard evidence
to the idea, but the very fact that Greene and
Philby were good friends in MI6 during the war
and that Greene seemed unfazed when Philby was
finally unmasked as a traitor in 1963 had
puzzled everyone who knew the author. Indeed, Greene’s enduring friendship with
Philby after his escape to Moscow troubled many of
his friends and biographers, and in his later work
Greene’s characters often seemed beleaguered by
the concept of never betraying a friendship, using
the dodge that, well, all human beings are flawed
and weak in their own way. Even
before the Philby affair exploded on the world
stage, Greene had written about believing in one’s
friend despite his flaws, even criminal ones. It
was at the very center of Holly’s admiration for
Harry in The Third Man.Just a
year before, in his novel The Heart of the
Matter, Greene had written, “In
human relationships, kindness and lies are worth a
thousand truths.” Katie had come to see Greene as a man far
less tortured by such personal deficiencies than
by the obvious brutality of war on every
side—Allied, Axis, Communist, anarchist, all
convinced God was on their side. He felt that the
petty workings of small men like himself biding
time in MI6 in backwater outposts like West Africa
served merely to keep the groundwork intact and
firm enough for the armies, battleships and
bombers to do their dirty work. Three years after
Philby fled to Russia, Greene wrote, “I would rather have blood on my hands
than water like Pilate.” The more Katie
delved into the story of Kim Philby the more
astonished she was at the ineptitude of the
British government to expose and arrest him. As
part of the so-called “Gang of Five” British
turncoats, Philby had been a recruiter and
mastermind, adept at almost everything he did in
his masked life, except his three failed
marriages. Philby’s was a complicated story, as any
spy’s needs to be, a sturdy fabric of lies and
evasion, of betrayal and paranoia. Harold
Adrian Russell Philby was born on New Year’s Day,
1912, to a good family but not upper class. His
father was an author and explorer, a friend of
T.E. Lawrence, and he nick-named his son after the
title character in Rudyard Kipling’s novel of
India, Kim. The boy excelled at public
schools and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and
dabbled in on-campus socialist societies, though
he was more interested in all the pretty girls
attracted by his blue-eyed good looks. In 1934 on a visit to Vienna, Philby fell
in love with an Austrian Communist named Litzi Kohlma (right)—some
say it was she who recruited him for the KGB—and
he helped her as a courier for refugees between
Vienna and Prague. They were married only in order
to use his British passport to get her out of
Vienna before the Nazis overran Europe. By 1938
the marriage had ended. Back in
London Philby gained work as a journalist for TheTimes,
which sent him to cover the Spanish Civil War,
winning a Cross of Military Merit from the right
wing Falangist Party.By 1941
he had been recruited into MI6, as a liaison with
Russia, then an ally of Great Britain. At his
London offices Philby oversaw young recruits,
including one named Graham Greene, who admired
everything about his mentor, his erudition, his
worldliness, his capacity for liquor and his
success with women. After the war, Philby was sent to Istanbul
as First Secretary of the British Embassy, where
he helped organize the Turkish intelligence
services. In 1946 he was honored as an Officer of
the Order of the British Empire for his heroic
efforts in the service of king and company. By 1949 he’d risen to the
position of top MI6 officer in Washington. There
was even talk that Philby would someday become the
head of MI6. While in Washington, Philby worked
alongside Guy Burgess (right), whom he’d
known at Cambridge, but whose vocal anti-American
attitude and homosexuality caused the FBI to
suspect he was a Soviet spy. But it was Philby who had been the
principal spy all along, even to the point of
helping Burgess and another
agent named Donald Maclean (left) evade
arrest and flee to Moscow in 1951, confounding
British and American intelligence. After the
Burgess-Maclean fiasco, MI6 and MI5 were convinced there had to
another mole, whom they referred to as “The Third
Man.”In
fact, Philby was repeatedly interrogated as a
candidate and sent into an ineffectual
bureaucratic limbo before being cleared of
suspicion four years later. Still, the whiff of treasonous activity
never fully lifted from Philby.He left
MI6 to become a correspondent for The
Economist and The Observer
in Beirut, where his second wife, Aileen Furse (below),
by whom he had four children, died mysteriously in
1957—some said from alcoholism, others said by
suicide, still others believed Philby had her
murdered.A
year later he married an American woman, Eleanor
Kearns Brewer. It was not until late 1962 that British
officials unearthed new material that convinced
them Philby had, all along, been the Third Man.
Agents were on their way to Beirut when
Philby got wind of an imminent arrest—many say he
was tipped off. With the KGB’s help, Philby was
squirreled out of Beirut and transported to
Moscow, where he reunited with fellow turncoats
Burgess and Maclean. The
news that Philby had evaded exposure for three
decades rocked the British establishment.
Afterwards, every aspect of Philby’s story would
be investigated by journalists and biographers,
who had to wrestle with the question of how Philby
could not only fool MI6 for so long but how high
he had risen in its ranks.
A year later another double agent, Anthony Blunt (left),
an art history professor, was offered immunity and
confessed it was in fact he who’d recruited
Philby, Burgess and MacLean while they were
undergraduates at Cambridge.Not
until 1979 was Blunt himself publicly outed as
“The Fourth Man” in the melodrama. Katie read more than one account that
contended Philby was actually a triple agent, who
had all along really been working for MI6and
whose “escape” to Moscow was a way of getting him
close to the inner core of Soviet intelligence,
which had promised him the rank of colonel.Instead,
Philby lived out his days in a small, squalid
apartment on 500 rubles a month under house
arrest. His wife Eleanor left him after finding out he was having
an affair with Maclean's wife. The years went on. Philby married again,
this time to a Russian woman named Rufina Pukhova
(below). Visitors, including his family,
were never given his address; they would be picked
up at the airport and be driven to his apartment
by a KGB officer. His visitors—which included Graham
Greene—and correspondence were always monitored. Drinking
heavily, Philby tried to commit suicide, yet in
his heavily vetted memoir, My Silent War (with
an introduction by Greene), which appeared in
1980, he insisted he never regretted his treason,
telling TheTimes of
London that he’d “absolutely do it all over
again,” and that the only thing he missed about
England wasColman's
mustard and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire
sauce.
By then
Philby lived each day always looking over his
shoulder, wondering whether his KGB handlers
really had his back.
Had
he actually been a triple agent, MI6 might have
helped get him out of Russia but never did. Philby’s death was never reported
by the Russian newspapers but was confirmed by the
Soviet Embassy in London.No date or cause of death was given, but
years later there was a military honors ceremony
held at Philby’s gravesite at Kuntsevo Cemetery. Deep into her research, Katie saw more and
more hints that Greene must have had Philby in
mind when he created the Harry Lime character. The
more she read into The Third Man novella,
the more she saw clues in the characters’
utterances, like the way the book’s narrator,Major
Callaway, describes Holly’s melancholy upon
hearing ofLime’s
death: “A world for Martins had certainly come to
an end, a world of easy friendships, hero-worship,
confidence that had begun twenty years before.”None of
Greene’s other friends from those days seemed to
fit that description. None except Philby. Years later Greene’s
1978 novel The Human Factor seemed
transparently based on Philby, though Greene
denied it. In that book the parallels were very
close.The
main character, Castle, is an ineffectual MI6
agent recruited by the Soviets in exchange for
facilitating his wife’s escape to her native South
Africa.Castle
convinces himself he could be of help fighting the
controlling anti-communist National Party’s brutal
apartheid policies.By the “human factor” Greene meant loyalty,
of which later hesaid, “I never believed in the prime
importance of loyalty to one’s country. Loyalty to
individuals seems to me to be far more important.” Katie thought to herself, “That sounds just
like Kim Pilby.” On another
occasion Greene spoke directly about Philby: "He betrayed his
country—yes, perhaps he did, but who among us has
not committed treason to something or someone more
important than a country? In Philby's own eyes he
was working for the shape of things to come from
which his country would benefit."That,
Katie thought, did not sound
like Kim Philby. In the balance, Katie had to admit,
actual links between Philby and Lime were highly
tenuous. The main argument against the Philby-Lime
connection, as David had told her, was that Philby
was exposed fourteen years after the release of The
Third Man. Had Greene no knowledge of his old
friend’s treason in the late 1940s there was no
good rationale for making him Harry Lime in the
1949 movie.But
then Katie would ask herself, if Greene did
believe Philby was a double agent back then—if not
a black market peddler—there was a good deal of
circumstantial evidence for Philby and Lime to be
connected. Alan Dobell had always warned her, “Never
go into a story set on proving a theory. Only bad
journalists do that; the good ones look at every
angle, every possibility.” Katie was too good a journalist to follow
her instincts alone. Still, at least on the
surface of things, she really did want Graham
Greene’s Third Man to be Kim Philby. Katie
felt the Philby connection had either to be
documented, proven or disproven once and for all,
especially since Greene kept up a correspondence
with Philby until his death in 1988.Three
years later, Greene died, with a letter on his
night table from his biographer asking Greene’s
last thoughts on Philby.Greene
had never answered back.
To read previous
chapters of GOING AFTER HARRY LIME go
to thearchive
CONTE VISTARINO
PLACES PINOT NOIR
AT THE CENTER OF THEIR
HISTORIC WINERY
By John
Mariani
The wines of Oltrepò Pavese
The wines of
Oltrepò Pavese in Lombardy have nothing like the
reputation of neighbors Tuscany and Piedmont,
known mostly for sparkling wines made from Pinot
Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio or Pinot Bianco.Other
varietals like Bonarda and Croatina are less well
known, often produced in bulk. But there are some
innovators in the region, not least Conte
Vistarino, whose founder, Count Augusto Giorgi di
Vistarino, was the first to plant French cuttings
of Pinot Noir (or Pinot Nero) in the region as of
1850 and spurring the production of sparkling
wines in the champenoise
method. His family descendants havemaintained
the estate near Pavia and today, under Ottavia
Giorgi Vistarino, the winery has become a standard
bearer for innovations in the vineyards and the
winery itself, including an impressive tasting
room and opportunities to take guided tours of the
area and visit the estate’s museum. I interviewed Vistarino about the
commitment to Pinot Noir as a varietal on which
Oltrepò Pavese can build its reputation.
Your
ancestors have always promoted the virtues of
Pinot Noir. What do you like about the grape you
don’t find in Italian varietals?
Pinot Noir makes everyone agree on
its peculiarities, especially the great wine
producers who are fascinated by this vine. The
refinement of the tannins and the fragility of
the fabric recall the most precious fabrics not for
their thickness but for their delicacy. Pinot Noir
has that typical characteristic of "less is more"
that fascinates those looking for extreme elegance,
not to mention drinkability, or that continuous
invitation to drink and taste again due to its
grace. In Italy, vines such as Nebbiolo and Nerello
Mascalese recall these characteristics, making the
most demanding palates agree. I love wine in all its expressions because
I'm curious, but I feel more at ease and more
satisfied when I drink both sparkling and red Pinot
Noir. Of the blanc de noir, I love the acidic edge
and of the second ones the delicacy of entry on the
palate with the immensity that opens immediately
after the first sip.
You still make
sparkling wine with Pinot Noir using the classic
Champagne method. Do you also use Chardonnay in
the wine?
At the moment we produce
four Classic Methods Labels; two of them are 100%
Pinot Noir, the other two are a blend of 85% Pinot
Noir and 15% Chardonnay. That little percentage
helps to mitigate the great freshness and acidity of
the Pinot Noir, and give us very appreciated wines.
You’ve said that the
changes you’ve made were based on what you
perceived to be how “the market evolved beginning
in the late 1980s.” What happened?
In the 1980s my family
business was selling our wine to the biggest players
of the Italian sparkling wine industry. Considering
the renowned quality of our land for Pinot Noir, I
decided to produce our own wine label. The change
was difficult, because it was first of all a
cultural change, and our job is much more complex
now, but I am sure that we made the right decision
and we are proud to represent our land and our
history around the world.
What is the
composition of the soils and terroir that make it
similar to that in French vineyards making Pinot
Noir?
Oltrepò Pavese is on the
same parallel as Burgundy, we have the same
calcareous and clay soil and the same climate, with
cold winters, hot summers and big temperature
shifts. With more than 3,000 hectares dedicated to
Pinot Noir (out of the total 13,500), Oltrepò Pavese
is the third largest area in the world, after
Burgundy and Champagne, for Pinot Noir’s production.
Tell us about your
new wine cellar.
The cellar, finished in
2017, was a big challenge because we decided to
renovate an old existing building instead of
building something new. We worked as ateam with
a prestigious expert in wine cellars and the
Milanese studio of the architect Andrea Borri. We
worked months to integrate the specific needs of the
production process to existing walls and history and
do it with style! The surface covers 3,000 square
meters on 4 floors. Here grapes move exclusively by
gravity. We also invested in technology for some
strategic machines of the cellar such as the Optic
tool for the selection of the grapes or the grape
pressing machine that’s very important to treat the
delicate Pinot Noir grape.Here we
process the 95% Pinot Noir, both for red and white
vinification, as well as for the sparkling wine
bases. That’s why we renamed the cellar “The House
of Pinot Noir.”
You keep
your old vintages in what you call the infernotto. How have youfound
older vintages to mature and evolve?
In general, the three Crus
(Pernice, Bertone and Tavernetto) evolve very well
and we can drink excellent bottles that have more
than 10 years. As always, it depends also on the
vintage. Recently we had a vertical tasting ofPernice
and we opened a bottled of 2010; we were all
surprised by the freshness of that wine. Of course,
the aroma had evolved: berries but also a balsamic
note, maybe also mushrooms and leather.
What technological changes have you made in the
cellar to keep ideal conditions and battle climate
change?
In the cellar we studied a
system of currents that refreshes during the summer
time, but the deep old walls of the building create
a first important barrier to heat. We also collect
rainfall and we use it for the cleaning of the
cellar. However, we deal with climate change mostly
in the vineyard: because to make good wine you need
first of all a good and healthy fruit. In the
vineyard we make practically no use of chemical
fertilizers, preferring the implementation of
agronomic practices aimed at preventing and
countering atmospheric events or bacterial attack.
In the last years we anticipated the harvest to mid
August.
You make several Pinot
Noirs. Can you describe the differences among the
labels Pernice, Bertone and Tavernetto? (all current2019
vintages $69)
Bertone is probably the
most elegant, refined, mellow and smooth. The
altitude and the woods that protect that little
terroir help the freshness and acidy of this wine.
Tavernetto has more structure, more evident tannins
and pleasant aromas. Here we use a bigger percentage
of new barrels, so the wine is less complex and very
attractive. Pernice needs more time in the bottle.
The color is an intense dark red, it has a complex,
broad fragrance with aromas of violet and red
berries and is the wine that mostly represents our
terroir identity.
What wines do you
make from traditional grapes like Barbera and
Croatina?
Yes, the fizzy red Bonarda
(from a Croatina variety), and Costiolo (or Sangue
di Giuda, “Judas’s Blood”), a blend of three
traditional grapes. The name of this wine, according
to an old legend, tells that Judas, repentant over
having betrayed Jesus, was forgiven and resurrected
in the Oltrepò, where he performed the miracle of
healing the local vines affected by an illness. This
is sweet wine that pairs well with spicy dishes,
spicy cold cuts, dark chocolate desserts and red
fruit salads.
❖❖❖
MAYBE PUT SEPARATE CATEGORIES
ON THE WINE LIST FOR EACH?
“A way to reach Gen Z is first
recognizing what their generation represents,” explains
Wright. “I believe their generation is looking to
support social change. Championing and recommendingfarm-focused[and]organic vineyards,female-driven wineriesandBlack-owned wineriesis a great
step in the right direction.”—Robin Wright, Beverage
Director atCi Siamoin New
York City in Wine Enthusiast.
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
The Hound in Heaven
(21st Century Lion Books) is a novella, and
for anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance,
inspiration, even the supernatural, I hope you'll find
this to be a treasured favorite. The story
concerns how, after a New England teacher, his wife and
their two daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their
barn in northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise.
But when tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and
the spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring
his master back from the edge of despair.
“What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was
completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its
message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw
“He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight,
soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani
pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing.
Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James
Dalessandro, author of Bohemian
Heart and 1906.
“John Mariani’s Hound in
Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an
American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise
event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a
voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A
page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote
for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann
Pearlman, author of The
Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister.
“John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a
literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and
the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas
tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children,
read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly
recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling
author of Pinkerton’s War,
The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To
Woodbury.
“Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an
animal. The Hound in
Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that
is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and
his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can
enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara
Royal, author of The
Royal Treatment.
Modesty forbids me to praise my own new book, but
let me proudly say that it is an extensive
revision of the 4th edition that appeared more
than a decade ago, before locavores, molecular
cuisine, modernist cuisine, the Food Network and
so much more, now included. Word origins have been
completely updated, as have per capita consumption
and production stats. Most important, for the
first time since publication in the 1980s, the
book includes more than 100 biographies of
Americans who have changed the way we cook, eat
and drink -- from Fannie Farmer and Julia Child to
Robert Mondavi and Thomas Keller.
"This book is amazing! It has entries for
everything from `abalone' to `zwieback,' plus more
than 500 recipes for classic American dishes and
drinks."--Devra First, The Boston Globe.
"Much needed in any kitchen library."--Bon Appetit.
Now in Paperback,
too--How Italian Food Conquered the
World (Palgrave Macmillan) has won top prize from the
Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards. It is
a rollicking history of the food culture of
Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st
century by the entire world. From ancient Rome
to la dolce
vita of post-war Italy, from Italian
immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from
pizzerias to high-class ristoranti,
this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as
much about the world's changing tastes,
prejudices, and dietary fads as about
our obsessions with culinary fashion and
style.--John Mariani
"Eating Italian will
never be the same after reading
John Mariani's entertaining and
savory gastronomical history of
the cuisine of Italy and how it
won over appetites worldwide. . .
. This book is such a tasteful
narrative that it will literally
make you hungry for Italian food
and arouse your appetite for
gastronomical history."--Don
Oldenburg, USA Today.
"Italian
restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far
outnumber their French rivals. Many of
these establishments are zestfully described
in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an
entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by
food-and-wine correspondent John F.
Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street
Journal.
"Mariani
admirably dishes out the story of
Italy’s remarkable global ascent
to virtual culinary
hegemony....Like a chef gladly
divulging a cherished family
recipe, Mariani’s book reveals the
secret sauce about how Italy’s
cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David
Lincoln Ross,
thedailybeast.com
"Equal parts
history, sociology, gastronomy, and just
plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the
World tells the captivating and delicious
story of the (let's face it) everybody's
favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and
more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews,
editorial director of The Daily
Meal.com.
"A fantastic and fascinating
read, covering everything from the influence
of Venice's spice trade to the impact of
Italian immigrants in America and the
evolution of alta cucina. This book will
serve as a terrific resource to anyone
interested in the real story of Italian
food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's
Ciao
Italia.
"John Mariani has written the
definitive history of how Italians won their
way into our hearts, minds, and
stomachs. It's a story of pleasure over
pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer,
owner of NYC restaurants Union Square
Cafe, The Modern, and Maialino.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher
Mariani, Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Gerry Dawes, Geoff Kalish.
Contributing
Photographer: Galina Dargery. Technical
Advisor: Gerry
McLoughlin.